1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to vending and game machines and, more particularly, is concerned with a coin-operated item vending and game apparatus housing with foreign object removal-enabling means.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Coin-operated vending machines, such as gum ball machines, have been popular for many years. Also, coin-operated vending machines are known having games associated with them.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,270,000, which issued Aug. 7, 2001 to the inventor of the present invention, discloses a coin-operated item vending and game apparatus which combines an item vending machine, such as a gum ball machine, and a game module in a more effective way to encourage use of the apparatus. The embodiment of the apparatus illustrated in the patent, following issuance of the patent, was modified in minor respects during the construction of a more refined version of the apparatus which was then introduced for sale and commercial use, more than one year before the filing date of the above cited provisional application. It will be readily observed by comparing FIGS. 1 and 2 herein, illustrating the commercial version of the apparatus, with the same figures of the cited patent that the commercial version retains the same combination of the item vending machine and game module and is substantially similar overall to the embodiment of the patent.
The combined item vending machine and game module of the apparatus allows a user to attempt in the game module of the apparatus to shoot or toss a coin to make a target by the coin passing through the target. Also, the apparatus has a mechanism to enable the user to prove that the target was made in case the proprietor of the apparatus has offered a prize for such accomplishment. The coin thereafter is routed to the item vending machine of the apparatus where it is used to obtain a vendable item whether the target was made or missed. The game module has attracted many users and has contributed substantially to the overall success of the apparatus.
However, as often happens in the case of many successful products, a small number of mischievous users from time to time have caused problems by attempting to play the game module without paying to play. These users typically attempt to circumvent the necessity to insert a coin to play by, instead, inserting a foreign object, such as folded piece of paper or the like, through a coin slot provided in a wall of the apparatus housing to a launch site on a flexible resilient lever of the game module intended to seat the required coin ordinarily inserted to such site. Then, such users actuate the lever to try to toss or shoot the foreign object so as to make the target with the foreign object.
Typically, the problem resulting from this kind of mischievous activity is not the loss of vendable items from the apparatus as the foreign object is usually incapable of replicating the function of a coin in a coin deposit of the apparatus which would enable the actuation of the vending machine of the apparatus and the vending the desired item, for instance a gum ball, to a legitimate user. Instead, the resultant problem is that the foreign object will typically fall downward along a narrowing path in the game module, one normally traveled by the coin after the game module has been played, leading from the game module to the coin deposit where the foreign object then stops and creates an obstruction or blockage of the coin deposit, preventing the coin from a succeeding user to reach the coin deposit and ultimately to receive the desired vended item.
Unfortunately, the occurrence of this kind of problem was not anticipated and so it is not possible to remove the obstructing foreign object(s) without first disassembling the globe and game module housing of the apparatus from its support base. Consequently, a need has arisen for an innovation to provide a solution to the aforementioned problem without introducing any new problems in place thereof.